Turkey Fest

We went to our first turkey fest tonight at church. It was the first one they ever had too.

They had raffles, auctions, gifts and food.

Everyone had a great time.

We bought the WalMart Special Christmas Wrap box for $29 made by the third grade.

Two of my friends got to bidding on the Ohio State cooler on wheels stuffed with hats and shirts and all kinds of things. They ran it up to $210! People were cheering at every bid and they got determined not to give up! That win against Penn State didn't hurt today, either.

I think every family got a turkey for Thanksgiving. The cake raffle was busy too. There are some farmwives there who can really bake. One makes the best pineapple upside down cake you ever tasted and mom's was good! Good thing mom doesn't read this!

It was good to see our church friends and talk about our problems and successes this fall.

What a way to end the week, we really enjoyed it.

That is a very special church because of their faith.

Ed

Speaking

I did not like speaking when I was a child, I was shy. But over the years I overcame that and spoke for 31 years as a public servant and now 7 years as a farmer. I have taught many FFA members how to speak publicly.

My first good chance at speaking was at my 8th grade graduation. I wrote up this good speech about the future and delivered it strongly. Dad was proud and people talked about it for weeks.

After my mission to China in '85, I was asked to talk about my experiences over 100 times. I learned to polish the speech and taylor it to the audience. Since the NoTill Innovator Award in 99 I have had many chances to improve my skills to try and help people.

I have been asked to speak on my farmer experiences at Plain City, Ohio, Minot, North Dakota, Des Moines, Iowa and Auckland New Zealand. It is a formidable schedule, one we work on all morning. I told them all you need a back up speak in winter in case I get snowed in and cannot get there on time. They all agreed.

Ohio wants me to teach fertility for cover crops, North Dakota wants to know how I increased wheat yields when I accidentally left radishes in the drill, Des Moines wants notill soybeans and has published a booklet on my work.

New Zealand is interested in how America gets the notill backing it has and how we can convince New Zealand farmers to reduce tillage when they don't need it. We helped host some of their farmers here two years ago.

I won't have to fire the woodstove for 6 weeks in winter!

I hope this is not the pinnacle of my farming and speaking career but it may well be.

Ed

Sable

She drove me to frustation today and over the last three weeks. Somehow she got into the trash before the trashman got here.

I was ready to give her up, I am so busy. I just don't have the time or personality to teach her and give her the discipline she really needs.

She is a high maintenance dog but still a sweetheart. She wants to be beside me every hour she is not asleep.

I left the pepperoni out recently after lunch, got on the phone and there is the empty package in the doorway. LuAnn cleaned out her crate dry heaving.

I have lost focus on some discussions with others trying to see what she is into. There are nose smudges all over the house and truck windows and scratches on the trucks where she jumped in or out. Dog hair everywhere.

Some people are afraid of her and some do not want her on their farm, another problem. She is a good scouting dog when I scout fields. Probably the best scouting dog I have ever seen.

Even my grandkids say papaw, put her in her crate. She knocked a couple of them down when and they remember but she doesn't bite them. She bites and nips at me and my shoes all the time.

She wants to be the center of attention but has done pretty well around other people. She wants to play with other animals unless they get mean ,then she gets defensive.

I guess a kennel with a dog house would help, we don't have that. We just trusted her. I can see she she is developing her personality into adult doghood. I want that to be appropriate.

LuAnn loves how she barks at a stranger or anyone who comes close to the house. That is why we chose her.

I wonder if I have time to train her at my age and activity?

What do you think?

Ed Winkle

PS

Today Les and I were talking in the combine and she chased his old German Shepherd all over and I saw her bothering the horses in their pen while we were combining.

Charity

One of the greatest gifts we can do is charity.

"The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".[1]
Originally in Latin the word caritas meant preciousness, dearness, high price. From this, in Christian theology, caritas became the standard Latin translation for the Greek word agapē, meaning an unlimited loving-kindness to all others, such as the love of God. This much wider concept is the meaning of the word charity in the Christian triplet "faith, hope and charity", as used by the King James Version of the Bible in its translation of St Paul's Letter to the Corinthians. However the English word more generally used for this concept, both before and since (and by the "King James" Bible at other passages), is the more direct love. (See the article Charity (virtue))
St Paul's agapē was not primarily about good works and giving to the poor[dubious – discuss] (And though I feed the poor with all my goods, and though I give my body, that I be burned, and have not love [agapē], it profiteth me nothing - 1 Cor 13:3, Geneva translation, 1560), although in English the word "charity" has steadily acquired this as its primary meaning, wherein it was first used in Old French at least since the year 1200 A.D.."

A new reader came across this blog and told me about their charitable giving so I thought I would include them in today's blog. I don't know who they are but the plan sounds good to me.

"Hi Ed,

I’ve just come across HyMark High Spots and noticed that you are a supporter of Goodwill.

I thought you would like to know we’re supporting similar charities through our spread the word for charity program! There are 3 really simple ways you can participate and get us to donate $5, $10 and/or $20 on your behalf.

See more info and what others are saying at http://www.hotelscombined.com/Charity.aspx

Look forward to hearing from you...

Kindest Regards,

Chloe

Chloe Swanson
Spread the Word for Charity
HotelsCombined.com

P: +61 2 8005 1773
F: +61 2 8088 7136

A: Level 2, Suite 3 / 173-179 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, NSW, Australia"

I have always tried to be a charitable person and share what I have. My favorite charity is my church and close is the National FFA Association. They have done so much help the youth who will work in the industry that feeds us.

My neighbors are very charitable and give, give give. One works at the soup kitchen in Wilmington.

In these challenging times we have had to really work together.

Ed

Farm Help

Many farmers hire help to get their work done. One person just can't do it all.

Farm help has become very frustrating with laws and regulations and help who get into trouble.

Here is a message from one of my email friends:

"I will try and cut to the chase and keep this simple. About 1:00 this afternoon my wife calls from work and one of her co-workers who is on the ambulance crew heard on the police scanner that the cops are trying to get a hold of Paul cuz someone was getting arrested. The boss was out of state and had no cell coverage. She sent one of the guys at work down to the A&W drive in to give the cops my phone#.

About the time I grab one of the other guys and get headed down town, the cops get a hold of me and tell me that my one guy had went off the deeeeep end ( Basicly he is delusional and should has been on meds. He also has a medical pot card which is just an excuse for him to smoke pot in my opinion. We get down to where this is going on and the cops explain to me that they need consent to search the pickup. I told them to go ahead.

They procede to pull out a couple of cardboard boxes out of the inside, then another one or 2 things out of the toolbox. Boxes contained enough pot to smoke the whole town . I didn't get a real good look at it but I also seen a pretty thick roll of cash in a tackle/small tool box that I didn't recognize. Later found out he had 5lbs of weed on him. He had just taken the weekend off to meet up with an old girl friend supposedly. I got to thinking later and I'm not so sure that he didn't maybe even take the farm rig on his run. Don't know can't prove it. We let him take his pickup home at night, only lives a few miles from the shop.

After I get home tonight I had a call on the cell phone from jail. I ignore that one. Then a few minutes later the caller Id comes up on the house phone "Unknown caller" He comes on the voice mail and is begging me to come bail him out tonight. If I undrstood right he needs $ 4000 in bail. Pretty much crying and wanting me to go get Paul and get the money. Was saying that people are making him sell his medical marijuana and he didn't want to. (Oregon you are allowed to have 24 ounces) Also said he had commited to crime.

What the cops originally pulled him over for was for tresspassing. He had had a meltdown and was saying that us, a neighboring farmer, the mormon church, and the cops were trying to take his kids away from him. He's divorced and kids live with the mom. I'm still not too sure where the tresspassing occured though.

He had gotten pretty nutty earlier this summer but had been ok since about wheat harvest time but his work had really went down hill this fall, lazy, quiting early,dinging up stuff, ran a tractor out of fuel, enough things that I was going to have a talk with him before he laid off for the winter that things were going to change or I was going to make a permanant change. I Know I'm a pretty poor boss because I won't really jump on people when they have it coming at the time and I should have addressed some things that were going on earlier but I don't like confrontations or being Human resources manager but the boss is worse than I am at this stuff.

I suppose I am going to have to go over the county court tommorow and see what he is looking at. The poor guy really needs some mental help and I will mention that to the D.A's office when I go. I guess I get to look for a new employee this winter.

Thanks for letting me vent tonight "

This is what farmers put up with and a lot of other employers I am sure. I remember years ago when WalMart came to town and only half passed the drug test so this has been building for a long, long time.

I wouldn't bail him out right now, let him cry awhile, if becomes too bad the sheriff will take him for help himself.

What bugs me is they get more help on Medicaid than I get on State Teachers Health insurance and I worked 31 years.

Fortuantely I work with the finest people I ever met. I couldn't tolerate much of what my friend has.

Ed

What a sight!

We just loaded out one semi load of dry soybeans while unloading a load of corn to the bins while unloading two more wagons of corn, all at the same time!

That wasn't possible when we moved here in 2004.

LuAnn and I have worked hard to make our 5 bins and inside dump bit a mini grain terminal!

I was really impressed. We just spent a pile of money trying to update these bins again. It is so expensive to keep.

Ran out of trucks yesterday and two old tractor pulling buddies came to the rescue. Bare Necessities and Rowdy Red helped us out. They came back today to help more. We moved a lot of good corn to town today as they want our corn. It is of good quality and as dry as anyone's coming in so less propane is needed to take it down to the market standard of 15%.

The 50 acre corn plot is now history. I can't wait to tabulate the results. It was all good corn but some better than others as usual. We might have 10,000 bu off 50 acres but I think we came a bit short.

This has been one interesting excursion!

Ed

7 more bushel soybeans!

Some scientists have been working on a new strain of soybean inoculant that has produced 7 more bushel per acre in replicated tests in Ohio. This could be a breakthrough!

Even if it averaged 5 bushels more across the country, what farmer could afford not to use it!

Today that would be another $63 per acre income on a few dollar investment.

More on this as I get further information but it looked good in my plots. 65 bu treated, 58 without, My inoculant made a little over 61 bushel per acre. I will have to study my data when I get time.

Ed